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Attendance and Absence in Scottish School 2007-08
11/12/2008
Scotland's Chief Statistician today published a range of statistics relating to the attendance and absence of pupils in Scotland's schools.
The main findings are:
- The overall rate of attendance was 93.2 per cent, largely unchanged from 93.3 per cent in 2006-07
- The rate of attendance for primary schools was 95.1 per cent (95.3 per cent in 2006/07). The rate for secondary schools was 90.9 per cent (90.6 per cent in 2006/07). The rate for special schools was 91.2 per cent (91.2 per cent in 2006-07)
- Eighty one per cent of pupils had an attendance rate of 90 per cent or above. About 35,000 pupils (five per cent) had a 100 per cent attendance record
- On average, each day there were around 45,000 pupils absent (seven per cent), of which about 660 (0.1 per cent) were temporarily excluded
- Various factors such as deprivation, having additional support needs and being looked after by the local authority increase the likelihood that a pupil will be absent
Due to ongoing concerns over the quality and consistency in the recording of the reasons for absence, the information on absence has been amalgamated so that only overall absence rates are shown in the main section of the publication. Tables showing the breakdowns by absence reason have been included in Annex C, however these figures are not considered to be of National Statistics quality and should be treated with caution and are being provided for information only.